Iran is a sticky situation. It looks like the Trump admin is poised to chip in some missiles if it looks like they can tip the balance definitively for the protesters, but according to the intel accounts, the current positioning of assets means they're still at least a few days away from acting. That could be a deception and at any moment the current regime could get erased, so it's probably prudent to get the hell out of Dodge before the missiles start flying, or before the total crackdown and enforcement gets escalated, in the other direction.
Given the times we live in, I won’t rule out any, even most crazy, possibilities.
If someone told me (Russian) 20 years ago that we’ll invade Ukraine, I’d think it’s some kind of terrible joke. But here we are.
Luckily the Greenland situation is different and we definitely haven’t been going through weekly events “that could never happen”.
As we all know, President Trump is completely comfortable with the word “no” and has been the greatest defender of international law and diplomacy between sovereign nations.
We've seen from the last years that's itself a deception to allow the right wing intelligentsia to excuse the erratic choices and profound damage to US international power.
Its an extension of the old Soviet propaganda tool "if everything is a lie, anything can be true".
* People working late at the Pentagon don't order pizza to the building
* The Pentagon has pizza options, including late-night ones
* The Pentagon is in fact chock-full of restaurants
* There is in reality no such thing as real telemetry about pizza orders near the Pentagon.
I have the opinion that this pizza thing is mostly just a story people tell because it makes them feel clever. Not high-horsing it; I have those too.
There are so many potential late-night work things happening that would need food, the idea that pizza orders can be used to identify high-profile military missions specifically doesn't make a lot of sense...
+
"In a statement to Newsweek in 2025, the Department of Defense denied the theory, claiming that the Pentagon has numerous internal food vendors that are available to late-night workers. It criticized the accuracy of the timeline provided by the Pentagon Pizza Report.[18][19]"
What about the other thousands of surges in pizza orders that had nothing to do with military missions abroad?
That's why Wikipedia calls it an "informal observation" and quotes the "potential for confirmation bias", asking "When else do spikes occur? How often do they have absolutely nothing to do with geopolitics?"
check now:
https://www.pizzint.watch/ "PAPA JOHNS PIZZA" 294% SPIKE !
https://gamaan.org/2025/08/20/analytical-report-on-iranians-...
> The protest movement is huge Source? How big is it? What % of the Iranian population is protesting?
> It is not "US/Israel-led" Source? We have reports to the contrary, and given the amount US and Israeli politicians are leaning in to the protests, notwithstanding their constant talking points on escalating things with Iran, it's not beyond reasonableness to suggest there is outside influence.
I was merely providing a talking point, as the general theme in the West is that US forcing a regime change is a good thing. I'm merely reiterating that it is not (based on historical regime changes the US has been involved in), and that there is good reason to believe majority of Iranians don't want a regime change if it's US-led and not a real democratic outcome.
It would be one thing if you were arguing that it was, and presenting evidence. But this is just innuendo.
Also, source on the 'massive protest'? Present the evidence.
This is a deeply buried thread nobody is reading anymore. I don't think there's anyone here to convince but me.
It would be totally reasonable for you to break off this thread at this point (I normally would too), but if you want someone to talk to that isn't susceptible to wishcasting in either direction on this news event, I'm here for you.
"no need for me to do so" or because you just can't? I'm not waiting for an answer. Just ask yourself that. Because at the moment, your methodology doesn't seem to be truth seeking.
On the other hand, if the reason you're engaging on HN is to evangelize a particular geopolitical position, I can imagine disagreement is more problematic, but you should know that's an abuse of the site.